The controversy over the Hans Niemann – Magnus Carlsen case is not stopping. After Hans Niemann defeated the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, Carlsen withdrew from the event giving no detailed explanations. Rumors that Magnus Carlsen suspected Niemann was cheating started spreading over social media, and each day brings new theories on the case. Just today, new allegations on Niemann – Carlsen case that Hans Niemann performs much better with live DGT boards emerged, while GM Nigel Davies has another take on the story, asking the FIDE Ethics Commission to act.
The legendary grandmaster Alexei Shirov today gave his insight about the whole controversy saying that Niemann’s case gets worse and worse: “After learning more facts, Niemann’s case gets worse and worse. As a peacemaker I just hope that Hans truly regrets his mistakes in the past as he himself stated in the press conference a few days ago. Unfortunately his last GM norm (also made in 2020) seems one of those mistakes, at least it looks suspicious”, posted Shirov on his Facebook account.
“To me it seems that some young players had no moral values in 2020. The fact is that pandemia slowed down people’s plans and ambitions and it was definitely more harmful for young generation rather than those who had their life before and could afford to look at things in more philosophical way. Very many chessplayers seemed to have done wrong things in the sport in 2020 (also counting Sutovsky who took the position to cover wrong cases) but still it’s the amount of irregularities in young players’ games that makes me feel especially strange. I will not call the names but in order my post not to look controversial I will say that I am operating with official info. Yes, I know that all those bans on chesscom and lichess are questionable, I myself defended some players. And in every concrete case there will be those who will defend strong and known players. I am not the final judge. But I stay with my opinion that unfortunately there is a lot of dishonesty in my sport. And 2020 showed it a little clearer than other years. Quo Vadis FIDE?” concluded Shirov.
See the timetable of happenings related to Niemann – Carlsen case: